Mercy Drilling 

This mono is not man-made. Occasionally features like these are created when granite is formed and/or eroded. I've climbed this route and have looked for and have NOT found any signs of chipping. Look at the hueco on "American Beauty" next to this climb. It is NATURAL. I have seen these kinds of pockets on granite in many other areas, not chipped. Just because a route is at the Sport Park does not automatically mean that it is chipped or bad. There are some good routes up there.

This is a good route with one very bad jam in the crux.

I think that it would hard to protect the crux and the section above it getting to the good finger jam (where the difficulties let off). At this point your last piece would be below the horizontal seam that is before the crux. A fall here, on gear, would be interesting.

When I first climbed this route several years ago, I thought it was chipped as well, but after climbing a few more routes on the cliff, I highly doubt the two solution pockets in the upper part of the route were chipped. At the worst they might have been comfortized, but this section of Surprising Crag has several such pockets, nowhere near the cruxes of routes (you don't even have to use the crux "mono" mentioned above).

This would be an R/X-rated trad lead. It would be an exciting, but relatively-safe mixed lead if one clips only the bolt at the crux.

People who are caught up in the Sport Park hysteria are missing out on a very nice crag in the west face of Surprising. There are several good 5.11-12 sport routes (not chipped) and some intimidating looking trad lines.

I'm glad this route was bolted, because I would never want to lead it trad, and I have led other routes at this crag with trad gear.

Really good route. Technical and powerful. My two cents worth: I agree w/ Joe in that I don't think that the route is any harder w/out the mono. -BA

I don't think that pocket was drilled. If that goes on gear, it would def include a heavy R rating as the crux would be very unprotected.

To set the record straight on Mercy Drilling & all the routes on the west face. All holds are natural. Perhaps the person who submitted this route should talked with Chris or I. In fact, the two finger undercling/sidepull would be very hard to drill like this. This is a beautiful examples of how natural pockets exist in granite. Most of the drilled holds I am aware of at the Sport Park are the larger pockets & jugs. I have ignored much of this site, especially if I have climbed a certain route & have the needed info. I generally just use it to get new route & first ascent info, but I am tired of hearing about this pocket being manufactured. Lastly, if you don't like the bolts on this climb, either don't clip them or go climb
Never A Dull Moment, Spin Off, & Englishmen's Home at Castle Rock.
Limits Of Power at Blob hasn't seem a repeat in probably over two decades.

This is a really nice route. It's a little short, but it's quite fun.

I would agree with others that when I first looked at the pocket on this thing, I thought it was drilled (and yes, I frowned a little). However, then I started to look around more and there are indeed other solution pockets scattered here and there, and given that Mark has posted up, I think it's best to take him at as his word (thanks for posting, Mark). I think the route poster should consider amending the description.

Furthermore, about the gear... this thing would be deeply 'R' without the bolts. The placements are flaring and marginal at best. A fall at the crux would probably not be super pretty. On top of this, I think it's bad form to climb a route using the fixed gear and then comment on how a route "could" go on natural pro...and clearly the route poster has not climbed it this way, because if he had, he would have noticed that there is no 3 inch (or 2 inch for that matter) gear on this until you are at the anchor.

So the route is called Mercy Drilling, but all holds are natural? Me confused.

Maybe because it's a bolted crack? And I'm glad they were there; I wouldn't lead this thing on gear but had a great time clipping bolts and enjoyed the safe crack climbing. I also didn't find a mono on the upper section, just the two finger pocket in the middle.